I came away from Emerald City Comic Con 2011 last week with a business card from C.B. Cebulski, Marvel's Senior VP for Creator & Content Development (read: Boss O' Talent Scouts), and a request from him to draw a few Marvel test pages that'd be sent to me later via e-mail.

I got them today.

Now, this is only a PENCIL TEST, not a job offer, nor promise of one down the way. C.B. did not say "YOU ARE SO AWESOMESAUCE--DRAW FOR US PLEASE OR I WILL VOMIT!"--he liked most of what was in my portfolio, and critiqued a few things he didn't like as much. All a pencil test means is that Marvel thinks I don't suck and might look kindly upon me if the pages look good. I have to make the pages worth it to them now, so time to get to work, using the critiques I got from C.B. and other pros at the convention to improve my stuff to the point I can get work with The Big Guys.

I get to choose from an Uncanny X-Men script, an Amazing Spider-Man script, and a Moon Knight script...then pick 5-6 sequential pages from one of them, draw it, and send 'em in.

Pretty. Darned. Neat.

I asked for permission to include any work drawn from these Marvel scripts in my portfolio for WonderCon here in San Francisco in a few weeks, and they nicely said yes. So I get to kill two birds with one...er...pencil.

On to reading and drawing these scripts!

Woo!

I'll post those pages in this thread as I get them done. I'll be starting in a few days.

You might want to first post layouts for your sequentials and get feedback on that, before moving on to finished pencils. 80% of problems with storytelling, pacing, flow, etc. can be solved in the layout stage.

I can't improve / process the FANTASTIC, positive critiques I got (I heard, "I can see where you're going with this stuff, and I can 100% see you doing this professionally soon" four times by four different folks--whee!) in the limited time before WonderCon here in San Francisco--I'm on fire, and I want to really dig deeply and study those things I'm lacking so that I can really jump forward in my art.

SO, I'm going to hit the study books, notes and websites and DRAW A LOT to improve some things before creating and showing another portfolio, which means I'll be attending WonderCon as a fellow comic book fan and not walking my portfolio around that one.

I also want to concentrate on my Marvel test pages. Those have no deadline, so I think I'm safe in studying for a few weeks before starting on them. I really wan those to shine.

It's hard to explain how motivating Emerald City was--and how brightly the fire is burning in me to improve a bit and show my (new, improved) portfolio again. I have never been so driven in my life--I won't stop until I get to wake up every morning with a page to draw for a cool comic book company.

Off to study and DRAW for awhile. I'll post stuff on my regular "Fred Lang Art Thead" as I get it done, and post the Marvel pages here in this thread once I get started on those.

That's great Fred! Your work is awesome. I'm glad that you are heading in the direction that you want.You have given me a huge amount of positive and energetic mojo to keep pushing forward and get betterto hopefully follow a similar path. Best of luck and keep us posted!

Thanks to EVERYONE for the great comments and positive mojo--the Comics Related community has been FANTASTIC to me as I push further and further toward the edges of finally getting into the industry.

I'm very happy to be part of legendary inker Al Gordon's weekly comic book workshop here in San Francisco. It's three hours every Thursday in downtown SF with freaking AL GORDON, and it's worth it's weight in gold. Everything from critiques to stories of the industry (it's still strange to hear him call the legends of the industry by their first names--to him they're people and pals, to me they're...amazing!) to tips on how things work in comics as a business--it's really brought things into perspective.

Al (see, I'm doing it now) approves of my plan to dive deep into my studio for about four weeks of study on the things I'm still weak in--things brought up by the great critiques I had at ECCC 2011--before starting on my Marvel pages.

Cool, Fred. Years ago, I got a call from Al after I'd sent him copies of my Legion of Super-Hero samples inks (who better, right?) The first thing he said was, "This is Al Gordon. Image hasn't paid me for Wildstar yet; call me back!. Which I was glad to do since he was doing me a favor by reviewing my inks. Pretty cool call.